DOHA: For the first time in the Gaza Strip, Qatar Charity (QC) held a signing ceremony of 66 sponsorship agreements for proposals that have won the ‘Ibhath Project’ grant.
The ceremony was attended by Ali Al Dabbagh, Executive Director, Qatar Development Fund (QDF), and his delegation in addition to representatives of universities, research centres, concerned ministries, international organisations, and entrepreneur companies in the Strip.
At a cost of about QR7.4m, the ‘Ibhath Project’ aims to encourage creative research and link them to the market. The project is funded by the GCC Programme for Reconstructing Gaza under the supervision of Islamic Development Bank and implemented by QC.
The winning researchers are distinguished academics and post-graduate students who presented eco-friendly proposals that had never been implemented before.
Each proposal was concerned with one of the following sectors: Water, environment, agriculture, and veterinary medicine; health, applied and pharmaceutical sciences; basic applied sciences; engineering, industry and energy; computers, and information technology and communications.
The project provides these winners with financial and technical support to implement their research.
Engineer Mohammed Abu Haloub, Director, QC’s Office in Gaza, welcomed the delegation from QDF and the audience and congratulated the winners.
“You are most welcome in Gaza. You are the ones who supported the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza. You have supported them on the political, financial, humanitarian and development levels,” said Abu Haloub.
He stressed QC’s commitment to the needs of Palestinians and said the ‘Ibhath Project’ reflected great progress in the field of humanitarian and development work.
He said: “We work on supporting development and construction, but we also try to build minds and encourage research creativity, hoping that researchers will find solutions for some of the problems faced by Gaza.”
Dr Zeyad Taha, Manager of the project, said the project revived the field of creative research in the Gaza Strip. He said a group of well-known experts in scientific specialisations from outside Gaza had reviewed the proposals thoroughly to choose the best. He said the evaluation process was implemented with maximum commitment from QC, and the 466 research proposals were reviewed with utmost transparency and integrity.
Choosing the winning 66 proposals came after consultation with 98 highly qualified experts and academics, mostly from the West Bank, the UAE, Germany, the US and Turkey.
The Peninsula
